It can take several hours to hit the pavement when leaving BRC. Then you have at least a 2 hour trip to the Reno Airport. You'll want to be at the airport at least an hour before your flight--if not more. You may also plan on a possible accident on highway 447 due to sleepy/foggy drivers. I have found in the past, that if my car is driving out of camp around 8:00am, I leave the playa in a fairly quick time. My rough guess is this will put you in Reno around 1:00pm, but who the hell really knows? If you leave your camp any later (just from my past experience) you will spend many more hours waiting in line to hit the pavement.Your mileage may vary.

id leave saturday spend a night in a reno hotel ..shower, eat room service and wake up the next morn and casually get on over to the airport.

after doing this for a bunch of years i would never squish a flight/trainride into the same day as i left the playa again.......

#1 no worries about making it on time!#2 it feels good to be clean and have fresh clothes on#3 food is delicious#4 who gives a shit if ya miss some shit at burning man, you already miss tons of shit while yer there anyways

if i had to catch a 4pm flight out of reno i'd probably leave the playa around 6-7pm saturday get in to reno maybe around 10 or 11.. arrive at my hotel, turn on the TV.. take a shower.. order room service and open up a laptop or a fancy cell phone to watch whatever was left of the man burn on the webstream while i ate my big ass cheezeburger in air conditioning.. stay up late, have a few drinks...... get a late check out from the desk people... wake up at like 10am ..shower again...eat yummie breakfast, leave hotel at like 1pm-ish (if they wont let you get late checkout.. just book another night.,.. the rooms tend to be damned cheap).. hit the airport around 1:30pm 2.. eat some crappy airport food, check in.. eat some crappy airport food... drink some expensive airport booze... board the flight and go home.

but! i may not be like everyone else.

at this point im willing to trade some time on the playa for a stress free and relaxing transition to reality again.

Trust us - we've all left Burning Man plenty of times. The only way to guarantee making your flight is to leave the night before. You're free to ignore that advice if you want, just make sure that when you miss your flight due to ignoring it that you have room on your credit card to pay the fees to either change your flight, or to buy a brand new, expensive, same-day ticket if you can't change it.

Day-z, if I were trying to get a 4pm Reno flight I'd pack the night before, sleep, and leave at sunrise (6am). i.e., I'd give myself no less than 10 hours. A travel alarm is nice (unless you can charge your phone on your vehicle).

My average exodus has been 3 hours, and I have taken as many as 6 hours before we got to the highway (2011. There was an accident . . . & some folks took 8 hours to get out). This is why no one can really tell you when it's safe to leave. It's a total gamble.

People are recommending you leave the night before because it is much more pleasant to be certain you will catch your flight, & have time to dump your trash legally, shower, and have your rental washed and returned and your baggage checked.

*** 2013 Survival Guide ***"I must've lost it when I was twerking at the trash fence." -- BBadger

So basically youre saying that you dont trust the burner expresss to get me to the airport in 6.5 hours even though it has an express lane and their own road to exit BRC from the rest of the community?

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

Burner Express is new this year; no one here has any practical experience from which to speak.

As happened 2 years ago, it could be that I80 is closed for many hours during Exodus due to an unrelated (to BRC) accident, for instance.Also, white out conditions can halt the entrance/exodus process; this depends on unpredictable Mother Nature.There are many variables to consider.

The advice of the experienced is to allow plenty of time for Exodus, returning/cleaning/off-loading, showers, rest and food before getting on a plane.What 'plenty of time' means to you is yours to decide.

And once you're off the playa and on the two lane highway that goes to I-80 you are at the mercy of traffic. No bus mojo to get through that if there's been an accident and traffic is creeping along at 10 mph.

Maybe you should ask yourself if you can tolerate missing your plane. If you can, leave later. It's a guess. If you want certainty you leave the day before or six am of the day. If you want the extra time on the playa and you're late to the airport, get a new ticket.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

I've known a few who've left on same day and made a flight (regardless of how far in advance... everyone always thinks they've planned plenty of time), I know many more who didn't. I don't know anybody who left the playa the day before their flight and missed it.

If there's no accidents along the route down to join the highway West to Reno...

Highway to Hell. Stairway to Heaven.Traffic prediction?.Odd. No bears in the dump. Oh well, lets go across the road & pick blueberries..... but don't harm the red dragon that frequents the area from time to time. He and I have an agreement.

Last year I remember a couple trying to squeeze the experience up to the last minute. They were in a bigger rush when it dawned on them that they were going to lose an hour changing time zones between BRC and Salt Lake City. At least Reno doesn't have this add-on factor.

The next morning you will wake up pretty much your old self except that a very unusual 16 hours will have been added to your store of life experience.

I think, for me, I would change the flight day to 2-3 days later....like fly out on Tuesday....but that's just my o-pin-ion.

Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them’s making a poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge? " I am a controlled substance". Savannah.

trilobyte are you referring to me or the other person? I wish their buses left a tad bit earlier on Friday. I'm seriously thinking about chancing it. But if I miss my plane I wont be able to catch up with my boat until Tuesday or Wednesday ie i will be stuck at burning man till the end friend.

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

Holy fucking shit! You've been given your answers. What more do you want us to tell you? Leave earlier or don't. Make a choice.

If you want to risk your flight by leaving later, or scramble and worry about getting to your destination on time only to suffer feeling like shit while sitting in some cramped airline seat covered in the filth you've acquired throughout the week GO RIGHT ON AHEAD.

Don't give us your whining about wishing the bus left earlier on Friday. Too bad. They don't. They could really not give two fucks about when you need to get back to Reno so you can fly out to go on a cruise ship. That's your problem that you deal with by leaving early. More importantly, we can't change any of this. So don't bother lamenting to us about the problem. DEAL WITH IT.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

I can related to what Bbadger's saying. There is more than enough information here for anybody considering departure by any means to figure out when to leave on Sunday. Sure, traveling on the back of a unicorn isn't mentioned, but everyone knows unicorns don't leave on Sunday.

If you're looking for people to tell you what to do and give you guarantees in life, Burning Man isn't really that kind of thing. Nothing is certain, nothing is guaranteed, there are many solutions to most problems, ultimately it's up to you.

Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them’s making a poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge? " I am a controlled substance". Savannah.

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm being a whining baby, but like I said before, I'm extremely cheap. The idea of paying 120-170 for a round trip ticket to BRC via the Burner Express seems extremely enticing as compared to $400 for a rental, plus up to $230 dollars in possible cleaning fees, and $100 in gasoline. Not to mention cleaning time, driving long distances solo, and seeing that dang bus pass me by in line (the ultimate insult). To save a possible 500-600 dollars I would definitely wallow in my own dusty filth for 18 hours...... believe it! I tried to search for a last minute airplane ticket to the islands I'm visiting and they were close to 1k. With that being said, as much as I don't want to take the long hard way, It looks like I have to. RESPONSIBILITIES! Plus its a catch 22...... your darned if you don't, and darned if you do. Such is life

BTW, I have a really hard time trying to decipher if you are talking to me or the other person. We have to different situations. They are leaving 6am on SUNDAY via the Burner bus. where as I'm leaving FRIDAY at 12pm via the burner bus. The other persons flight is at 4pm and mine is at 7:25pm. Lastly, I looked up peoples responses on exodus and the majority of the posts spoke about Sat-Tuesday exoduses. Only 1 post referred to a Friday Exodus. From what I gathered the person said that there were no lines at all. His drive home was uneventful and fast.

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

You have all the information you need. To summarize: allocate about 10 hours before your flight (and be fully packed up by that point) because conditions are unpredictable. Take your flight time, subtract 10 hours or whatever you think is adequate, and round that off to the nearest time point that your transportation method allows. Basically, the logistics of how you're going to make that deadline are up to you. We really don't care how much money you're saving, or whatever reasons you're choosing to use some service or transportation method -- that's your problem.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

I got a reply back from the Burner Express in regards to their Friday 12pm departure from Burning Man heading towards Reno. I will post the response below. Its sounds decent, my exodus will start well before 12pm more like 8 or 9am. Read below for more details because this exodus will most likely mimic everyone elses!!!

"We ESTIMATE the trip will take anywhere from 3-5 hours, depending on traffic conditions. We will be stopping at Save Mart on way back to dump garbage and recycle bikes. The main bus depot will be at 6 and G, and that bus will shuttle you out to Gerlach where you will hop on the larger coach bus. The bus will leave out of Gerlach at noon, so please be to Gerlach prior to 11 am. Due to the this being the first year, I have no idea how long the line will be until we continue to see ticket sales.

Thanks

Andrew RipaniDirector of Sales & Site Operations"

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

I spoke to another Rep today and I was told the first shuttle leaving Burning Man will be at 4am (maybe) 6am definitely. I will definitely leave on one of the earliest buses in order to get to Gerlach in time for my 12pm bus and a shower. I will make a request for them to post more info about the shuttles headed towards Gerlach on the other days. This bus ride will definitely work with my schedule! God has been blessing me all month... first the free flight change to Friday night, then the discounted bus ride to BRC, and finally my deeply discounted tent AWESOME!

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain